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Sick Sluggers player opts to go home

24 August 2016

Myla (left) and Cecil at HKIA
On Sunday, Sept 18, women’s team Philippine Sluggers will return to the pitch savoring the glory of playing again in A bracket of Hong Kong’s annual baseball league season.
But the team will be missing one buddy, Myla Someros, a founding member who went home for good on April 13, ending 14 years of working in the SAR and eight years of playing for the side.
One of her friends said she had myeloma, or cancer of the blood caused by a shortage of red blood cells. Other sources said she had pneumonia
The 47-year-old Someros, a single mother to an 11-year-old daughter, left Hong Kong quietly that Wednesday night escorted by her best friend, team founder and president Cecil Calsas, who turned over the ailing OFW to her family in San Enrique, Iloilo.
“I miss her because I consider her my family. Nakakalungkot na umuwi siya dahil sa karamdaman,” Calsas told The SUN in an online interview, reminiscing the night they flew home. They were seen off by Assistant Labor Attache Henry Tianero for their early morning flight to Iloilo City.
Calsas recalled how Someros was almost barred from boarding the plane by health screeners at HKIA because she was running a fever, but the Sluggers leader said she was able to talk their way through. Then they went through the hurdle at NAIA and passed.
Calsas said the former player was too weak to walk about in the Hong Kong International Airport terminal and had to use a wheelchair. She did so, too, when she changed plane in Manila and when she disembarked in Iloilo.
A staff from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration office was at Iloilo Airport to assist Someros through the airport processes upon her arrival with Calsas
Back home, there’s a more serious hurdle that Someros must surmount: the reality of being penniless, as she has not received any financial help from the government, including OWWA.
“Nakakalungkot kapag naiisip ko po siya. Walang pinansiyal na tulong ang OWWA sa pagkakaalam ko. Parang pormalidad lang ang OWWA, dapat alisin na lang at i-refund ang contribution ng mga tao,” Calsas said.
OWWA is an insurance system that grants financial aid to OFWs who suffer permanent disability or dismemberment in work-related accidents or die of natural and accidental causes, but gives no cash benefits to seriously sick members.
A ray of hope is offered by a memorandum of agreement between OWWA and PhilHealth that offers a new medical aid to OFW members who are diagnosed with ailments that require hospitalization and long-term care.
MEDplus, which will be implemented starting this September, will match the benefit that PhilHealth grants to its members under its case rate system up to a maximum of Php50,000.
Myla with fellow Sluggers during happier times
According to welfare officer Lorna Obedoza, Someros will be eligible for the new medical aid, as she is an affiliate member until Nov 2016.
Someros belonged to a team of intrepid and talented domestic helpers who have opted to go to the diamond on Sundays to run, swing bats, catch balls, and dive on the pitch in practice or real play.
In the early days of Sluggers, she was a mainstay of the team along with Calsas and other original players who have since left Hong Kong for greener pastures or to settle down. – Vir B. Lumicao
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